Jewish Women's Archive - Yiddishhttp://jwa.org/blog/yiddish
enYiddish poetry: It's not just for men!http://jwa.org/blog/yiddish-poetry-its-not-just-for-men
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<div class="field-item even"><div class="jwa-media image "><a href="/media/2012-national-poetry-month-logo"><img src="/sites/jwa.org/files/styles/scale_width_300px/public/mediaobjects/poetry_month_eletter3.jpg?itok=JUl3Ux9O" width="150" height="150" alt="2012 National Poetry Month Logo" /></a><div class="caption" style="width: 150px;"><a href="/media/2012-national-poetry-month-logo" class="object-details-link"><img src="/sites/jwa.org/themes/jwawesome/images/img_trans.png" class="sprite sprite-search" alt="Full image"></a><div class="caption-inner">2012 National Poetry Month Logo</div></div></div></div>
<div class="field-item odd"><div class="jwa-media image "><a href="/media/dropkin-celia-still-image"><img src="/sites/jwa.org/files/styles/scale_width_300px/public/mediaobjects/Dropkin-Celia.jpg?itok=RS3d26FA" width="300" height="418" alt="Dropkin, Celia - still image [media]" /></a><div class="caption" style="width: 300px;"><a href="/media/dropkin-celia-still-image" class="object-details-link"><img src="/sites/jwa.org/themes/jwawesome/images/img_trans.png" class="sprite sprite-search" alt="Full image"></a><div class="caption-inner"><p>Yiddish writer Celia Dropkin both shocked and delighted New York literary society of the 1920s and 1930s with her poetic depictions of the primary elements of the human experience: love, sex and death.</p><p>Institution: John Dropkin</p></div></div></div></div>
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<div class="field-item even"><p>Most people believe that Yiddish literature and poetry was written solely by men. In reality, there were hundreds of female Yiddish writers and poets, all of whom had their own distinct biographies and writing styles.</p>
<p>Edith Kaplan Bregman was one of these women. She was born in a Russian <i>shtetl</i> in 1899 to a Hasidic family, immigrating to New York when she was 13. In America, she was exposed to literature that hadn’t been available in Europe, so she became a voracious reader. Bregman went on to write poetry in her native tongue, Yiddish. Her love of language led her to meet many Yiddish literary giants, like Avrom Reyzen, a poet who became her mentor. While she wrote poems throughout her early life, her works weren’t published until 1939, when a Yiddish newspaper had a poetry contest that she entered and won. Her victory gave her the confidence to publish more of her written work. Some of the themes that recur throughout her poems are a love of Judaism and God, life in Europe, and Holocaust remembrance. In addition to writing poetry, Bregman sang and played the mandolin and piano. Bregman’s last poem was published in 1997, a few years before her death at age 99.</p>
<p>Another Yiddish woman poet was <a href="//jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/dropkin-celia“">Celia Dropkin</a> (1887-1956). An eager student, she was formally educated for most of her youth in Belarus. She began writing poetry in Russian at age 10 and was encouraged to keep writing by Uri Nissan Gnessin, a Hebrew poet who she became close with. After getting married, Dropkin immigrated to New York. She began translating her Russian poems into Yiddish and published them in several leading Yiddish literary magazines. While some of Dropkin’s works were about her life experiences and children, she is famed for her passionate poetry about sex, eroticism, love, and relationships, themes that resonate with readers today. In the early 1900s, most people thought that Jewish women only wrote <i>tkhines</i>, Yiddish prayers often concerning domestic matters and child-rearing; Dropkin challenged that. While a number of critics felt that her works were too personal and too overtly sexual, her contemporaries were generally positive about her writings. Modern-day Yiddish enthusiasts have not forgotten Dropkin’s contributions to Jewish literature, as her poems have been published in several contemporary Yiddish anthologies and set to song by klezmer bands.</p>
<p>Some female Yiddish poets went out of their way to address women’s issues in their poetry. <a href="//jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/molodowsky-kadya“">Kadya Molodowsky</a> was one such woman. Born in 1894 in a Russian <i>shtetl</i>, her poetic career began in 1920, when she published her first poem. She married and moved to Warsaw shortly afterward, where she became active in the Yiddish Writers Union. Many of her works celebrate and discuss Jewish women and their role in the world. Her first book of poetry, <i>Nights of Heshvan</i>, is written from the point of view of a Jewish woman in her 30s who moves throughout Eastern Europe, like Molodowsky herself. It was received to wide acclaim. Another book of poetry, <i>Freydke</i>, features a narrative poem about a Jewish working-class woman. After immigrating to New York, Molodowsky wrote <i>From Lublin to New York: Diary of Rivke Zilberg</i>, a book of poems about a Jewish woman immigrant. She also wrote a column for <i>The Forward</i> about great Jewish women, as well as publishing a long poem about Gracia Mendes, a Portuguese Converso who saved innumerable Jews from the Inquisition. Molodowsky also cofounded and edited a Yiddish literary journal, <i>Svive</i>. Other themes she wrote about included poverty, children, Judaism, the Diaspora, Zionism and Israel, and the Holocaust. Her lifetime of achievement in poetry was recognized when she received the Itzik Manger Prize, the most prestigious award in Yiddish literature, in 1971.</p>
<p>Yiddish women poets paved the way for modern Jewish women writers, impacting aspiring poets from <a>Gertrude Stein</a> to <a>Adrienne Rich</a> to Vanessa Hidary. May we learn from the legacy they left us and make the world a better place because of it.</p>
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<a href="/topics/yiddish">Yiddish</a>, <a href="/topics/poetry">Poetry</a><a href="/tags/yiddish-literature">Yiddish Literature</a>, <a href="/tags/national-poetry-month">National Poetry Month</a>Mon, 09 Apr 2012 16:11:35 +0000Anonymous15390 at http://jwa.orgSweeping Away Nostalgia with Songs for the New Yearhttp://jwa.org/blog/songs-for-the-new-year
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<div class="field-item even"><p> Recently, I saw <a href="http://www.eleanorreissa.com/">Eleanor Reissa</a>, a talented and well-known Yiddish actress and performer, sing "My Yiddishe Momme" to a standing ovation. Mind you, the crowd was entirely over seventy and the children of Polish Jewish immigrants to North and South America. To help pass the time, I thought about that nice tough character, <a href="/encyclopedia/article/tucker-sophie">Sophie Tucker</a>, who made the song into a bi-lingual top five hit in 1928. This was no mean feat in a country where nativist sentiment had just succeeded in shutting tight the doors of immigration to the "Goldene Medina" (the "Golden Country"). (You can see Sophie in action -- and in historical context -- if you buy the DVD of <a href="http://www.makingtrouble.com"><i>Making Trouble</i></a>, the film about funny Jewish women produced by the Jewish Women's Archive.) </p>
<p> Its lyrics, and my reaction to the nostalgia it invoked, made me think about another paean to Jewish womanhood: <a href="http://www.aish.com/sh/ht/fn/48966686.html">Eishes Chayil</a>. We are reminded on Friday nights when traditionally it is sung at orthodox dinner tables, that the price of "a woman of valor" is proverbially above that of rubies. My "Yiddishe Momme" strikes a similar theme when it states that the Mama in question needs no jewelry since her children are her treasures. Which brings me to the somewhat uncharitable thought that songs written putatively by a spouse or even children may not always strike the right notes even as they extol their exemplary feminine paragons of virtue. </p>
<p> So what might strike a better note here? On the theme of continuity, <a href="http://www.adriennecooper.com/Adrienne_Cooper/Adrienne_Cooper_New_CD!.html">Adrienne Cooper's forthcoming release</a> might fit the bill quite nicely. Among other things, it features a multi-generational piece where she mixes her voice with that of her chazan (Cantor) grandfather, as well as with that of her mother. It also features a number of new compositions which is a healthy thing for those of us who want to start the new year by avoiding old chestnuts. And for those looking to explore the creative power of rupture and its attendant anguish and pain, there are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewlia_Eisenberg">Jewlia Eisenberg</a>'s series of releases on Tzadik's label. For instance, Trilectic includes a strong female voice giving Walter Benjamin a piece of her mind (even if the political sentiments are not exactly my own). And oh yes, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend "<a href="http://www.klezmershack.com/bands/london/shvitz/london.shvitz.html">Emma Goldman's Wedding</a>," a primarily instrumental recording written by Frank London in the 90s that combines humor and irony in perfect proportions while virtually toasting the Jewish anarchist whose strong views on marriage could make Bertrand Russell's Marriage and Morals look like a defense of the institution. </p>
<p> So what are your favorite songs to sweep away nostalgia? Replying to this posting is an amulet of sorts that guarantees starting the new year on a good note :) </p>
<p> <i>Yenta Laureate of the Lower East Side has spent most of her life living in various Jewish communites which helps create a certain amount of cynicism about that which she knows and loves best. Her photos can be seen <a href="http://tiny.cc/elissa">here</a>. </i> </p>
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<a href="/topics/jewish-music">Jewish Music</a>, <a href="/topics/yiddish">Yiddish</a>Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:40:43 +0000lberkenwald14189 at http://jwa.orgKlezmer, Ladino, and New Music Fusionhttp://jwa.org/blog/fusion
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<div class="field-item even"><p>I always have an ear out for new music, especially music that brings together sounds and styles from different parts of the world. Two of my favorites include the music of the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dmh1cZQuXk&amp;mode=related&amp;search=">Afro-Celt Sound System</a> and <a href="http://www.rebbesoul.com/">Rebbe Soul</a>, both of which are quite innovative and energizing.</p>
<p>Recently, I discovered two new groups—<a href="http://www.saraharoeste.com/">The Sarah Aroeste Band</a> and <a href="http://www.oi-va-voi.com/">Oi Va Voi</a>—that create a similar kind of sound-fusion by bringing Jewish ethnic flavors back into the groove. As a five-member group, The Sarah Aroeste Band melds rock, funk, and blues with Sephardic melodies and <a href="http://www.forward.com/articles/11376/">Ladino lyrics</a>. With her family roots in Spain and Greece, Aroeste is determined to keep Ladino—the ethnic form of Castilian Spanish developed by Spanish Jews after their expulsion from Spain in 1492—alive, vibrant, and trans-continental through her music.</p>
<p>In a similar fusion vein, Oi Va Voi, an <a href="http://www.forward.com/articles/11376/">experimental London ensemble</a>, fuses indie rock and electronica with Klezmer and other global rhythms drawn from Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean, and beyond. Before becoming a multi-platinum solo artist, K.T. Tunstall was a guest vocalist for Oi Va Voi. Who knew?</p>
<p><img src="http://dusselhayvan.files.wordpress.com/2006/09/oiva.jpg" /></p>
<p><img src="http://www.klezmershack.com/bands/aroeste/2006_aroesteband.jpg" /></p>
<p>Both of these groups have been around for some time now, but have simultaneously put out new albums which are gaining momentum.</p>
<p>I think they’re pretty great. Listen to their music on MySpace: <a href="http://www.myspace.com/oivavoi">Oi Va Voi</a> and <a href="http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&amp;friendID=38591253">The Sarah Aroeste Band</a>.</p>
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<a href="/topics/folk-music">Folk Music</a>, <a href="/topics/jewish-music">Jewish Music</a>, <a href="/topics/popular-music">Popular Music</a><a href="/tags/sarah-aroeste-band">Sarah Aroeste Band</a>, <a href="/tags/oi-va-voi">Oi Va Voi</a>, <a href="/tags/ladino">Ladino</a>Tue, 21 Aug 2007 20:29:16 +0000jnamerow13627 at http://jwa.org